Can You Sue a County Over Negligence That Led to Molestation

My question involves child abuse or neglect in the State of: California.

Well I'm not sure how to fit my question into a short appropriate thread but here it goes.

Recently the FBI showed up to my house in April to speak with my husband and asked me to leave. Turns out that a man that his drug addict mother left him with when he was 12-14 over the course of 2 years, was a major pedofile who recently made California news for having found over 100,000 child porn images in his home. Among those pictures was my husband who was unconcious/naked being molested on several polaroids. The FBI showed these pictures to my husband, and since he was being drugged he never knew what happened to him until now several years later seeing these pictures.

His mom went to jail for drug related charges for 6 months, then rehab for 6 months subsequently after. Himself and his sister were put into foster care for a year.
After his mom regained custody of him after being in jail and them being in foster care, it didnt take very long for her to go back to her old ways of being homeless, using all her welfare and foodstamps on meth and drugs. So due to this fact she left my husband at the time with a pedofile and his sister somewhere else.

After being in fostercare no workers ever came to see him/her talked to them, asked how things were, did home inspections ANYTHING, right AFTER she regained custody she moved right away and they never came to their new home to make sure things were ok.

Had the county and social workers, judicial system actually checked on her, to make sure she was off drugs and had a place for her kids to live, and food to eat my husband would have never been put in a situation where he was being drugged and molested on a habitual basis for 2 years, which has really hindered his life because of the drugs he was being subjected to in order to be unconcious.

We're looking into suing the county for negligence that has clearly led to emotional and mental trauma to find out that the system failed him so badly that he has to deal with this for the rest of his life because his mom (still is) a junky and abandoned him at any convinent home and noone ever came to check on their family.

Is there any advice anyone can give me as far as what our legal options are?

Your husband can discuss the details with a local lawyer, but given the passage of time and statute of limitations issues, the standard for proving a case against the county (very difficult), the fact that your husband was not a ward of the state when this happened, and the fact that the county did not select the caregiver and had no apparent knowledge of any problem with the caregiver, I'm not expecting that he will be able to identify a viable case against the county.

The fact that the county had no apparent knowledge of any problems, is what the problem is. She was a convicted felon who lost custody of her children abused the system, and because there was never any follow up after she was released from jail and got her children back(because she went to rehab, they didnt give her any grace period after completely rehab before they gave her custody) is why this happened.

I was adopted when I was a teenager and I was techincally in foster care for several years, and almost on a monthly basis before I was adopted Social Workers came to my house often to make sure everything was ok before I was adopted and even AFTER I was adopted

So the problem is that because there was never any follow up regarding her or her children this is the result. As far as the SOL, this was only just brought to light within the last few months.

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Quoting Shanna Allstead

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The fact that the county had no apparent knowledge of any problems, is what the problem is. She was a convicted felon who lost custody of her children abused the system, and because there was never any follow up after she was released from jail and got her children back(because she went to rehab, they didnt give her any grace period after completely rehab before they gave her custody) is why this happened.

I was adopted when I was a teenager and I was techincally in foster care for several years, and almost on a monthly basis before I was adopted Social Workers came to my house often to make sure everything was ok before I was adopted and even AFTER I was adopted

So the problem is that because there was never any follow up regarding her or her children this is the result. As far as the SOL, this was only just brought to light within the last few months.

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What you probably do not realize is that the mother probably made sure that the system had no idea where she and the children were. The system cannot check on children if they don't know where they are to check on them. You yourself stated that she became homeless and left the children with someone else.

They could have found her because she started opening up utilities with her kids names/social security numbers, and she was on an annual basis being taken to civil court, from the time she got custody back of her kids in 1995 up until 2005 she had 7 civil cases against her for unlawful detainer because she was moving into places and not paying rent and refusing to leave.

the state does not and cannot scour the courts in all the districts in a state and all the states in the country to be able to find a person.

and how was the state supposed to find her when she used her childrens names and SS numbers at PRIVATE utility companies that do not disclose information to the state without a warrant?

Seriously, the person to blame is his mother and the molester. Sue those people for either failing to protect him or for the actual molestation.

After she regained custody she did establish a residence that was reported to welfare and foodstamps because she had to have a place to go when she regained custody.

They never checked on her after the fact, and within 4-6 months she was already back on drugs.

So you're going to tell me noone is at fault but her and the guy?

Social workers are REQUIRED to check on minors after a situiation like this before a case is closed which NEVER happened, and what about parol officers that should have been checking in with her and drug testing her?

Come on people....

Had the state located her, your husband would have told them nothing about the problem because he was unaware of it. The mother would have told them nothing about the problem, whether or not she was aware of it. But more than that, it's not the state's duty to investigate every household to the extent that nothing bad ever happens to a child - that's an impossible standard to meet.

You didn't ask us to point the finger of blame. You asked us to indicate whether or not your husband could sue the county. You can be morally culpable yet bear no legal responsibility for an injury.

Doesnt change the fact there was never any social worker follow up and had their been theyd know she was on drugs and the welfare of the children was at stake and that my husband wasnt there because he was left at someone else rather then her care.

Quote:

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Quoting Shanna Allstead

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After she regained custody she did establish a residence that was reported to welfare and foodstamps because she had to have a place to go when she regained custody.

They never checked on her after the fact, and within 4-6 months she was already back on drugs.

So you're going to tell me noone is at fault but her and the guy?

Social workers are REQUIRED to check on minors after a situiation like this before a case is closed which NEVER happened, and what about parol officers that should have been checking in with her and drug testing her?

Come on people....

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after a situation like this? It was not "like this" when the kids were taken away. It was after the children returned home the molestation started, at least by what you have posted.

and was she on parole? If so, what were the terms of her parole?